Melanoma Awareness

Have you heard this before? Be comfortable in your own skin. Well, that’s easier said than done when your skin is LITERALLY TRYING TO KILL YOU.

My first melanoma diagnosis was when I was 20 years old. I was doing my hair and I NOTICED a mole on my neck I’d never seen before. Looking at it and I knew… deep in my bones… I have CANCER. I went to work the next morning where I was a lifeguard/swim coach. I showed my boss and told her I had cancer, she thought I was jumping the gun and said I would be fine, just keep wearing sunscreen.  The doctor said the same thing. But I just knew. Trusting my intuition, I insisted on having a biopsy done on 3 moles I was nervous about. That intuition saved my life, and changed my path to something I never could imagine.

“DOCTORS TOLD ME I LOOKED FINE.”

I can’t even count how many times medical professionals told me I was “fine” and that I had nothing to worry about. I get a full body scan every 6 months to measure any changes in moles and since my first melanoma diagnosis 15 years ago I haven’t left a single one of those appointments without getting biopsies done. At my first visit with my dermatologist, I had 5 biopsies done with only 1 looking worrisome. My dermatologist said… you guessed it… “they look fine to me” about the other 4. Well one of the moles I asked to be biopsies was my second melanoma. 

Right when my second melanoma was diagnosed I had been in and out of doctors’ offices several times a week and I noticed a lump along my jawline that had been there for probably six months. When I brought it to my Dermatologist’s attention his face lost all expression. I was nervous because it was on the same side of my body as the melanoma and my first one was on my neck so I was in a panic that it had spread significantly. He told me I needed to see an ENT (ear, nose, throat) specialist because he suspected it wasn’t just a swollen lymph node... even writing this gives me knots in my stomach all over again. ⠀

“You assume new realities and it quickly brings perspective and your priorities to the surface faster than the speed of light.”

Before you know it, I was in another specialist office. I went through a battery of blood tests, biopsies (sooooo painful), scans, a laryngoscopes and agonizing waiting. It turned out I had a secondary cancer that is common in melanoma survivors, a Pleomorphic Adenoma (tumor on my Salivary gland that was tucked right behind my jaw). I jokingly say I’m a 2 and a half time cancer survivor because my third cancer was found simultaneously as my second melanoma that it all blurs together. ⠀

Even before my second and third cancer diagnosis, I had to undergo several “non-invasive” procedures to make sure my skin was healthy. 4 rounds of Photodynamic Therapy and you know what? That non-invasive therapy was incredibly painful! However, it was necessary for me in particular to kill off developing cancer cells on my face, neck and chest. After my first round, I literally looked like a monster. My face got so swollen, blistered, peeled, then blistered all over again. This is only part of the story…

“THE TREATMENT STOPS, BUT THE JOURNEY DOESN’T.”

My cancer journey started over 15 years ago and will continue the rest of my life. But today, we do a happy dance and celebrate that it’s been over five years since my most recent cancer diagnosis and I am in the “safe zone”.⠀⠀⠀⠀

Please, please remember these things! Wear sunscreen, own and trust your intuition, and please get your skin checked and look into if anything seems off. 99% of people can survive melanoma with early detection! Enjoy the sun, but protect yourself & stay aware. You won’t regret it.